December 2010 – Dennis Heppner

Month: December 2010

Insecurity

December 22, 2010
by Dennis Heppner

I am an insecure person.

Wow!

That’s a big confession.

Truthfully, in varying degrees, so are we all. If we were all secure we would not seek so many things to make us secure.

Obviously the first thing that comes to mind is money. Why do we think we need so much money? “Its to be secure.” How secure do we need to be? When is it enough money?

You say, “No, you get me all wrong. I don’t work just for money, I work because I love to work and need something to do.”

Well then, if you think you are secure, why not give ½ of what you now earn away?

“Oh no! I can’t do that, I need the money to…”

So there you have it, we are really insecure. It’s never enough. As my friend said to me some years back, having saved millions, “Just one more million.”

How much power does it take to feel secure? Do you ever have enough power to be fully secure? From famous power-hungry people like Stalin, Idi Amin, Adolf Hitler, Hugo Chavez, to the bossy manager in the office…men-and women- women crave power. Some become evil, some not so evil, but in most cases they use the power to protect their position. Most of them are insecure.

Funny, in most cases it was the people who put them in power- PEOPLE POWER- but then keeping the power become the goal. This is insecurity at it’s worst.

Our little ways are not much different, just not so blatant-self-protection and control. How we desperately want to control our circumstances and the people around us. If anything gets out of control, we are in a panic- showing our overwhelming insecurity.

What happens if someone criticizes you straight to your face? If you are hurt and angry, it’s insecurity.

How about when you hear or you think you heard what someone said about you? You desperately try to find out what they said. It’s really hard to let a rumor go. Our insecurity rises to the surface.

The problem with insecurity is it prevents trust. The deeper your insecurity, the more shallow your relationships. Our insecurity makes it difficult to listen to others; we cannot afford to be wrong or less than the best. I’ve seen organizations and churches where everyone feared the boss to the place where no one would tell him the truth.

Some years ago I heard Larry Crabb say in a seminar that the premise of the Christian life is that “Jesus and only Jesus is all you need to be happy.” It sounds simple, yet Jesus promised you everything you need.

It’s just that we think we need something else. We need more.

Just a little experience and honesty from us will reveal that all the ‘stuff’ in life we pursue does not really make us happier, more secure or satisfied. Jesus received the worst of human treatment- yet He was unmoved by criticism, rejection and scorn. He wasn’t a robot- for He demonstrated a vast spectrum of emotions including sorrow and anger- but He was never insecure.

It is my conclusion that real security is parallel to the depth to which we have allowed Jesus into our lives. A life fully committed to Jesus is real security. You see, nothing is going to happen to me or you today that Jesus will not be there.

Some time ago it became so real to me in the middle of a day where most things had gone wrong, that the Holy Spirit knew that this day would be like that. He was prepared for it and I did not need to be. He would take me through.

Most of us are fixers. We want to get things done, finished and over with. That does not work with relationships. It’s not like, “meet Jesus and it’s fixed.” It’s like “meet Jesus and through a living relationship with him, He fixes and at times re-fixes things.” There is no other way to ever be secure.

There is an answer for our insecurity. You can’t fix yourself, or the world, or all your relationships, but HE can. He is our security.

General

Navigating through a corrupt world

December 19, 2010
by Dennis Heppner

It’s pretty bad out there- the corruption.

It’s everywhere. It’s government, police – actually almost everyone official.

We are living in a Catholic country, classifying the Philippines as “Christian”. This means theoretically that the majority cling to the Christian identification rather than Muslim, Hindu or some other major religion. The term Christian also applies to everyone who is in between, such as cults etc. What troubles some is that the Philippines is considered the only Christian nation in Asia and yet we have corruption? How can this be? Depending on which survey you read we are between 1 and 5 as the most corrupt country in Asia.

So the Philippines, though called Christian, has only a small percentage who are true practicing Christians- people committed to Christian values and practice.

The business of corruption, and it is a business, is all around us in Asia. The following paragraph is from Time Magazine;

“The Thais call it gin muong (nation eating). In Chinese, it is known as tan wu (greedy impurity), in Japanese oshoku (dirty job), and to the Pakistanis, it is ooper ki admani (income from above). Every Oriental language has its own phrase for corruption—and in every tongue the words are unpleasantly familiar. There is always the kickback artist, the bagman, the specialist in “squeeze.”

Now for true Christians this is a problem. Can I, should I, pay money to get favor in business? How about influencing a court decision? Should I pay the policeman to overlook my driving infraction? Or worse… for him to go away and forget his imaginary infraction on my part?

Corruption is everywhere, in every country… just worse in some places.

I have a couple of thoughts about this subject.

The New Testament was written within a very corrupt society. Yet Paul said in Romans 12 to be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. The KJV says be “honest”. Proverbs speaks strongly against bribes. Bribes were, and still are, primarily used to pervert justice- like paying a judge or influencing what is right in your favor which may be wrong.

The bottom line is we cannot do much about the corruption in a corrupt world. We live in it and with it.

We can, however, do something about our participation in it.

We should not pervert justice with money. When a policeman asks me for money, my reply is that I am a Christian and I cannot give him any money. So far, every time he has backed down and let me go.

Then there are times I have given money for causes that I did not feel were perverting justice. For example, I needed some court documents, The judge had already ruled in my favor. However my documents would have taken many weeks to get out. My attorney recommended I give the clerks something and we’d get the document in a couple of days. I did so but felt no guilt because i did not pervert or interfere with a decision. I “oiled the wheels of administration”.

So the giving of money must be qualified by the reason it is given. I’ve known several Christians who have obtained good contracts without reaching under the table. It can be done!

It takes faith to live in this corrupt world. God can help us, provided we have inner convictions that we want to be honest in every thing we do. I wish it was black and white, but it isn’t.

Maybe a simple answer would be found in this question, “If Jesus stood beside me during this transaction, would he approve?” That should settle it.

General

Who’s in charge?

December 15, 2010November 3, 2015
by Dennis Heppner

Someone has to lead….. the way, the attack, the plan or the people.

Well, actually someone is leading. If anything at all is happening with a group of people someone is leading. Everything happening may be negative but if something is happening someone is leading.

The problem is that often in life the one who should be leading is not leading. In defense of strong women, they often lead the family. I’ve talked to many wives and mothers over the years who wish and want their husbands to lead the family, but he does not so she does.

You see, someone has to lead or people go astray, disintegrate, become confused or start fighting. Once any of these things happen, progress is limited or lost entirely.

So whether its a family, a church, a group or organization, everything needs a leader.

Organizations all have leaders. It’s not necessarily the designated leader who is leading. It’s the one whom everyone listens to that is really leading. So in your circle, who are people listening to? That’s who’s really in charge.

The designated leader may have the title. However, leading from position and title is the weakest form of leadership. In fact, it only counts if the people respect of the position. If they don’t respect that particular position, the leader has no power to at all to move.

There are some simple ways to improve your leadership and move from a figurehead to a real leader.

First, look deeply into your character. Are you a good woman or man? If you don’t think you are a person of character then why should anyone else think so? Without character you may lead but the end result will be mixed and in time the effect of your leadership will be negative.

Second, make sure you fit the position. Personality, experience, and training should equip you for your responsibility. Do you fit? If you find yourself in a position where you don’t fit, you have only 2 possible outcomes:

survive and get fit real fast

get out before you’re overwhelmed.

Third, as a leader do your homework. Know what you are talking about. When you open your mouth make sure you know what is going to come out. Winston Churchill, in his days as a parliamentarian, prepared a secondary speech for every point in his presentation that might be challenged. Over prepared? For every defense he needed to make, he was prepared.

Fourth, don’t be afraid to stand up and stand out. It is advised that leaders should dress 10% better than followers. Just a little better, symbolizing they are ahead, just a little ahead of the followers but not too far ahead. If you stand out the stones hit you first. That’s what leaders do- they take shots from the bushes. No one sees it coming but it comes. Leaders get the flack, blame or whatever. That is part of being a leader. Not everyone likes every leader.

Fifth, take responsibility for everything that is happening under your watch. You are the leader so really indirectly or directly it is all your fault or credit. Never let yourself off the hook.

Five should be enough for now. Actually these 5 can become a discipline. Without these five beliefs becoming actions, you will never lead successfully. What may happen is that you may be the official leader but someone else will call the shots and that person is the real leader.

Lead on, my friends!!

General

Who’s in charge?

December 15, 2010January 19, 2011
by Dennis Heppner

Someone has to lead….. the way, the attack, the plan or the people.

Well, actually someone is leading. If anything at all is happening with a group of people someone is leading. Everything happening may be negative but if something is happening someone is leading.

You see, someone has to lead or people go astray, disintegrate, become confused or start fighting. Once any of these things happen, progress is limited or lost entirely.

So whether its a family, a church, a group or organization, everything needs a leader.

There are some simple ways to improve your leadership and move from a figurehead to a real leader.

survive and get fit real fast

get out before you’re overwhelmed.

Fifth, take responsibility for everything that is happening under your watch. You are the leader so really indirectly or directly it is all your fault or credit. Never let yourself off the hook.

Lead on, my friends!!

General

Cause of unHappiness

December 14, 2010
by Dennis Heppner

Unhappy… that describes just about everybody these days. We have stuff, lots of stuff or at least a lot more stuff than our parents had. Even the poorer of society have electronic gadgets. Yet we never have enough to be happy. We have knowledge, we can find the answer to almost everything, in a moment, on the internet. Then we have a world full of doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and self-help writers. We should be all well helped- but we are still unhappy.

So why?

I came across a quote from Blaise Pascal awhile ago worth thinking about. Blaise Pascal was a 17th century scientist, theologian and Christian. Here’s what he wrote;

“All unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own room.” The reason he says is, “The natural poverty of our feeble mortal condition is so miserable that nothing can comfort us when we think of it closely.”

So we need noise and distraction.

Do you get it?

Unhappiness is caused by our own busy-ness. We love noise. We are never still. We rarely truly relax. In the end the more we hurry the more unhappy we become.

I am currently living in a place with no television. Wow! Culture shock! Once we got used to the lack of noise we’ve thought that maybe when we transfer houses next year we’ll forgo the TV. It’s wonderful like this.

The psalmist wrote in Psalm 46:10 ” Be still and know that I am God.” The Hebrew phrase “be still” means to let go your grip, let your hand sink down, to cease.

Just stop whatever it is and let God have place in your life or circumstances. “Know that I am God”. Everything we understand from the Bible is that God will become involved if we let him. To know that God, the Lord, is really God is happiness.

So I, like every human, have to deal with life, pressures, problems and issues. It’s all stress! However if I know that God is really God, what on earth can there be to worry about? If I stand or sit still, or shut the noise off and just think about this simple truth…. that alone brings peace.

And when peace returns I am happy- truly happy.

I am suggesting most of us are to busy to be happy. So if we want to be happy we’ll have to stop some of the busy and open our life to God. Then we are on the road to happiness.

General

Saying Goodbye

December 13, 2010
by Dennis Heppner

Recently a friend of ours dropped by. She has not been around for several years. I told her how pleasant it was to have her come by and visit and she replied, “I don’t expect I’ll come this way again.” She is not sick, but older and realistically understanding she may not get back to Asia.

Everything and everyone must die. That’s the rule of life in this world. I realized in our friend’s comment how much I resist that simple truth. We don’t want things nor people to die. We don’t want things to change, especially if it’s good or ok and yet change keeps coming like a steam roller, leveling all we cling to.

Every human peaks somewhere in life. Every Christian movement does its thing and declines. Every great church drifts into the ordinary and at times even closes. So then, why bother?

With this in mind we would all be wise to find out what lasts beyond what we see and invest ourselves there.

Where is your treasure? What really excites you? What would be good enough to get you up early without any prodding?

Then ask yourself if that has any eternal value. Will all of that die with you?

The true bottom line in life is Jesus and how we relate to Him and His work.

It is measuring our love for Jesus and asking ourselves what would we be willing to do for love of Christ.

As a Christian worker the only part of our work that is eternal is relational- the time we actually spend with Jesus and the time we spend touching people for Jesus.

Eternal measurement must be the investment we make in people- winning people to Jesus, discipling them, developing their gifts and pushing them forward in God. All of that is eternal and nothing else.

And yes, eventually, we say goodbye, to all the rest.